Paul K. Gellert, Sociology
The Global Studies major focuses on understanding connections between different parts of the world. The Society and Culture concentration has a humanist orientation and requires more coursework in the humanities than the social sciences. Globalization, or the trans-national exchange of investments, commodities, people, politics, technologies, and cultures, is both a characteristic of the contemporary world and the culmination of large-scale, long-term social change. Although globalization, at times, seems dominated by new economic and political formations more powerful than the traditional nation-state, it has also mobilized new expressions of local and transnational discontent and resistance.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, global studies curriculum helps students understand the implications of global change, allowing the university community to confront what is occurring in our immediate locale by examining what is going on elsewhere. Bringing together faculty and students from diverse perspectives creates an interdisciplinary understanding of the disruption and integration resulting from changing configurations of nations, global processes, and identities.